The practice of utilizing connectors of the type having many sizes within a family of connectors adapted to be used with many sizes of cables containing a variety of numbers and sizes of wires is wide spread. This fact, coupled with the extremely small dimensions of cable wires and connectors and terminals has presented a very complex problem for harness-making. One solution employs a wide variety of jigs, each configured to handle one or perhaps several of the variations and permutations possible with varying connector and wire sizes. This is expensive and troublesome in terms of parts which must be inventoried and caused to intermate for effective harness-making. Moreover, the very variety of connectors, cables, wires, and harness dimensions called for electrical and electronic equipment, including computers, business machines, telephone systems and the like, in essence renders the numbers of things that are identical relatively small. Relative to the tooling utilized for harness-making, the problem is complicated by the need for a large number of tools which are variable in nature, or alternately, very complex tools requiring significant set up time and expense to manufacture and maintain.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tool and a jig in combination which is universal in the sense of accommodating families of connectors of different sizes as terminated to different cables having different wires therein in a simple, low cost, and easily used structure and mechanism. It is a further object to provide a tool which accommodates a wide variety of connector, cable, and wire parameters through a structure and mechanism facilitating a repetitive process of manufacture of cable assemblies with few adjustments required during use. It is still a further object of the invention to provide an improved tool for accommodating insulation displacement terminals and connectors of the type having multiple rows of terminals oppositely oriented on a given connector wherein there are connectors having sizes appropriate to different numbers of terminals over a relatively wide range of accommodated wires and sizes.